Eleven Madison Park

What It's Like To Eat At The Best Restaurant In America

In the case that I’m ever facing dire straits and am given one last meal, I now know the answer as to what place I’d choose.

Headed by Chef Daniel Humm, who won the 2015 Chef’s Choice Award, Eleven Madison Park was named as the fifth-best restaurant in the world this year — and thus the best in the United States. While those labels are always up for scrutiny, there’s no question that this three-Michelin star restaurant doesn’t just serve up a meal; it’s an evening of entertainment where world-class service is paired with mesmerizing presentations and exquisite flavors. You might have heard about it recently when an angry piece by a former employee went viral last week. Regardless, I wanted to see what the best of the best tastes like, so I experienced the journey first-hand. Scroll down to come along for the ride.

Setting

Dave Golokhov

Eleven Madison Park is set in the historic Metropolitan Life North Building, which was designed in the 1920’s and was supposed to be a 100-story skyscraper. However, after the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, construction was halted on the 29th floor.

The art deco space features 35-foot ceilings, views of picturesque Madison Square Park and many classic and modern details creating a timeless space that is intimate and comfortable. The interior space of the restaurant, formerly Veterans Hall of Met Life, features a number of elements that are original to the space. This includes the hanging light fixtures and fluorescent lights, windows, and the marble at the front and rear of the restaurant.

Beginnings

Wine Selection

Dave Golokhov

Sparkling Pointe, Brut Seduction (2005). This sparkling wine comes from North Fork, Long Island. It’s about a 50/50 blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, two of the three classic champagne varietals. It’s aged on its lees for eight years, which allows it to develop more intense flavors and complexity. Giles Martin has been with the winery since the beginning.

Flower Arrangement

Dave Golokhov

The flowers arrive from Michael George, who is a second generation florist based in New York. Their Lead Designer, Guadencio Contreras, takes nods from what’s happening at Madison Park each week (colors, leaves, specific flowers, weather, etc.) and sources all of his flowers from as close as possible. In the case of the floral design that night, the simplicity and quality of the flowers or branches themselves were the highlight.

English Peas

Beer

Dave Golokhov

To pair with the peas, out comes a bottle of beer from Transmitter Brewery, which is based out of Long Island City, Queens. It first opened in 2013 by two veteran home brewers and great friends of Eleven Madison Park: Anthony Accardi and Rob Kolb, who specialize in Belgian and Farmhouse Style ales.

The W1 is their Belgian Style Witbier, a beer that is made predominantly with raw or malted wheat in order to keep the body light and refreshing, while keeping the alcohol content relatively low. Coriander, bitter orange peel and black peppercorn are added for its citrusy spice aromas. A small percentage of rye was also added to the grain bill.

Smoked Pike

Rhone Valley Wine

Dave Golokhov

The next wine comes from the Rhone Valley in France courtesy of winemaker Herve Souhaut. He is located on the opposite shore of the Rhone River than the more classic sites in Hermitage. This white is comprised of 70% Viogner and 30% Roussane.

The estate, called Romaneaux Destezet, is named after a fortified 16th century farm, Les Romaneaux. Many of the Rhone’s great wines are intended to age for a long time, but in their youth they can be hard to drink. Herve tries to make wines that are enjoyable in their youth.

Caviar

Dave Golokhov

Sturgeon caviar with egg, black truffle and asparagus. This dish is a take on eggs benedict, which originated in New York. One legend suggests that it was created for Mr. and Mrs. Benedict as an alternative dish at the Waldorf hotel.

The Kitchen

The Staff

Dave Golokhov

How hard is it to land a job cooking in this kitchen? Humble, team-players will always make it through to a trial shift or stage. At least one of these is mandatory, no matter where you're coming from. Applicants have come from all over the world — as far as Australia and the Middle East even — on their own dime, with no promise of a position, to see if they can make the cut.

Ice Shaver

Dave Golokhov

Eleven Madison Park found this old used Trade Mark ice shaver in the Bronx and had it refurbished. It was originally from the early 1920’s and, after they got a hold of it, they sent it to Regency Carts, who did a full refurbishing of it and custom made the cart that it is now attached to. The full reworking of the shaver took about a year.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras

Dave Golokhov

The second option for foie gras was in mousse form. This was a Hudson Valley foie gras, marinated and then passed through a fine tamis before being molded and set. It was prepared with chamomile and white asparagus.

Cavallotto Langhe Grign

Dave Golokhov

The next wine is Cavallotto Langhe Grign, Piedmont, Italy (2011). It’s a classic Barolo producer that flies under the radar. Grignolino is a little grown grape that is almost never seen outside of Piedmont but can make delicious wine.

Besides the three actual Barolo bottlings that they make, they also make a few lesser known wines, including the “Grign,” which is 100% Grignolino sourced from 0.5ha of 40 year old vines with West and Southwest exposure at an elevation of 285 meters above sea level. This wine is aged completely in steel for a period of about eight months.

The Normal Way Or The Special Way

Dave Golokhov

The sommelier offers us two options to open the bottle. “I can uncork this bottle the normal way and we can all just go about our evening as normal and think nothing of it…or I can show you something cool.” Naturally, we opted for the show.

Traditionally, this method is used in Oporto and England to open very old bottles of port. Nowadays, the use of port tongs today is rare. These tongs have long metal graspers and are usually made from cast iron with wooden handles, which have a ring at the end. The ring allows one to grasp the neck of a port bottle, which is important for that opening process. Traditionally, vintage port is a fortified, sweet wine that’s made in Portugal. It’s meant to be aged a long time before drinking. Good bottles in good storage can last decades or even centuries, so with old bottles such as these, removing the cork without destroying it can be quite difficult. Another issue is sometimes the bits of cork can end up floating in your wine. While this doesn't affect the wine itself, it is not that attractive to serve. The purpose of the tongs is to allow you to remove the neck of the old port bottle completely with the cork intact so that service can proceed easily and cleanly.

The Method

Dave Golokhov

How it’s done is the tongs are heated and then clamped around the neck of the bottle. After the glass is heated, a cloth that is held in ice water is then rubbed on that same area of glass. That dramatic change in temperature causes the glass to fracture cleanly, which leaves you with two parts: the neck with the cork intact and the bottom, which is the bottle cleanly opened. Just to be sure, the wine is then poured into a decanter through a fine mesh sieve. Then a little pot of wax is heated so that both sides of the bottle can be dipped into it and then the people at the table get (safe) souvenirs to take home.

Maine Lobster

Pig's Bladder

Dave Golokhov

Innovation and creativity are taken to another level when a sous-chef arrives with a pot with what looks like a giant balloon inside. It’s a pig’s bladder that is being cooked with asparagus on the inside.

Steamed Asparagus

Dave Golokhov

In France, during the 18th century, they would braise different types of meats inside the pig’s bladder, such as dishes like poulet en vessie. You can imagine the degree of difficulty of braising a stem of asparagus inside a pig’s bladder.

The dish is essentially braised sous vide in the pig bladder, served with potatoes and black truffle.

Dessert

Riseling Noble Select

Dave Golokhov

The wine pairing for dessert is Hermann J. Wiemer’s Riseling Noble Select. It’s another New York product, which comes from Seneca Lake, New York (2011). It’s made from riesling grapes, which have been infected with the noble rot. It’s a great showcase of the capabilities of the Finger Lakes wine growing region in New York to produce world-class dessert wines. The wine is very sweet with notes of clover honey, almonds, ripe apricots, and candied ginger.

The Process

Dave Golokhov

According to the sommelier: “The grapes were harvested over a period of five days to individually select the properly raisinated berries before being hand-sorted for the next three days. This next step took eight sorters to finish! The grapes were then transferred to a Howard Screw press (the mechanism of which Gutenberg modeled the mechanized printing press from), which the winery has had since 1963, to extract all of the sugar-rich must before being racked into old oak barrels to ferment. The barrels that are used to ferment are specifically used only for the winery’s sweet wines.

Unofficially, the Riesling Noble Select is classified as trockenbeerenauslese; the grapes are picked at a level of ripeness/sugar levels measuring 150-154 using the Oechsle Scale. For grapes to measure such high sugar density, they must have already been infected by botrytis, a type of rot which dehydrates the grapes on the vine.”

Tea Service

Dave Golokhov

Next up is the tea service, which includes six full steepings of the Oriental Beauty (Té Company, Hsinchu County). With each additional steeping, the tea — which was given by an English Queen — has added depth of flavor. This tea is delicate and feminine with hints of peach, apricot, and honey, and was one of Queen Elizabeth II’s favorites.

Strawberry Variations

Pretzels

Dave Golokhov

These chocolate covered pretzels may seem like a very simple item but nothing at Eleven Madison Park is basic. They take regular pretzels, process them, mix them with white chocolate, reconstitute them into pretzel form, set them, dip them in chocolate and then sprinkle them with sea salt.

Apple Brandy

Dave Golokhov

And at the end of it all, out comes Laird’s 7.5-year-old Apple Brandy. “We feel that when you come to our house, it’s part of the hospitality to have an after drink. Something the host chooses, to show our gratitude to our guests for coming to have dinner (or lunch) with us,” says the waiter. “Everyone needs a nightcap, whether they know it or not.”

Gift Box

Homemade Granola

Dave Golokhov

On your way out, Eleven Madison Park has a gift for you: homemade granola. Why granola, you ask? We wondered that too. The idea is that when you wake in the morning after such an incredible meal, rest easy. They have your breakfast taken care of!